![]() Managers often want to avoid singling out their star performers, or put off holding their under-performers accountable. A third common reason for delayed decision-making was a desire to be fair. But taking action in the face of incomplete data is an executive’s job. First, a desire to be kind often encouraged leaders to put off making, or delivering, a decision they knew would be unpopular, but this only increased people’s pain in the long run. A second problem was an obsession with making the absolute best decision some leaders delayed decision-making to gather more data. In particular, three challenges stood out. In a ten-year longitudinal study of more than 2,700 leaders, 57% percent of newly appointed executives said that decisions were more complicated and difficult than they expected. In fact, hard decisions often get more complicated when they’re deferred. The delay often does far more damage than whatever fallout they were trying to avoid. Like this story? Like CNBC Make It on Facebook.Too many leaders avoid making tough calls. "The key is being able to spot which decisions are one-way and which are two-way doors," explains Branson. ![]() But these are far and few between, he says. "But if the things hadn't worked out, I could have walked back through the door."īranson acknowledges that some decisions require careful thought over a period of time. "Thankfully, we never had to," he writes. ![]() For example, when Virgin Atlantic was launched, he made a deal with Boeing to give back the plane if the airline didn't get off the ground within a year. In fact, selecting the correct decision-making approach is something Branson always tries to keep in mind. In his blog post, Branson writes that within an organization, it results in "slow processes, lengthy, laborious meetings, a loss of momentum and ultimately less progress." When you use a "one-size-fits-all" decision making process, writes Bezos, it leads to "slowness, unthoughtful risk aversion, failure to experiment sufficiently and consequently diminished invention." "If you walk through and don't like what you see on the other side, you can't get back to where you were before."īut like Branson, he notes that people have a tendency to use the "heavyweight" one-way decision process on two-way decisions, which is a mistake. " decisions must be made methodically, carefully, slowly, with great deliberation and consultation," he writes. However, this type of decision requires a process that it very specific to the issue. In Bezos' 2016 annual shareholder letter, the CEO writes that in the past he made the mistake of approaching all decisions as "one-way door" decisions. This theory is one that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos prescribes too. "For a business trying to be innovative and nimble, its leaders need to make plenty of two-way door decisions." The entrepreneur compares this form of decision-making to walking through a door: "You can walk through the door, see how it feels and walk back through to the other side if it isn't working," he writes. Even if they seem definite, they are actually reversible."īy this, Branson means that you can come to a conclusion, test it out and tweak it as you see fit. It's important to note that most decisions we make are not one-way door decisions, writes Branson. So you should tailor your decision-making strategy to which type of decision you have to make. One-way door decisions are irreversible or nearly irreversible while two-way door decisions are reversible, explains Branson.
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